With public school teachers as its primary clientele, education is close to the heart of City Savings Bank, a subsidiary of Union Bank of the Philippines and part of the Aboitiz Group of companies. The 60-year-old bank’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) program focuses on empowering students and teachers by building new schools, rehabilitating existing ones, donating equipment and giving learning materials and school supplies.
City Savings also supports CSR projects of other Aboitiz units, synchronizing its outreach activities with the bank’s. Last 23 May, it donated a smart TV, water tanks and school supplies to the Dinagat Elementary School (DES) when Aboitiz Foundation formally turned over a solar power system and satellite Internet equipment to the Department of Education last-mile school (LMS) as part of its flagship AuroraPH program.
City Savings volunteers are always part of the foundation’s AuroraPH outreach project in LMS.
“Whenever there’s a turnover of their solar panels, we also conduct a financial wellness program for the teachers,” adds Paula Ruelan, assistant vice president as well as reputation and brand management head of the bank.
The bank also delivered three water tanks for DES to augment the existing rainwater storages in the Manobo community located deep within the Agusan Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary in Bunawan, Agusan del Sur.
Under City Savings Bank’s own educational program, it funds the construction of one-storey classroom buildings and the rehabilitation of classrooms in public schools nationwide.
In 2025, new classrooms were donated to the Bashoy Elementary School in Kabayan, Benguet and the Santiago South Central School in Santiago, Isabela. City Savings Bank also funded the major renovation of classrooms of 11 public schools and minor repairs in 20 other schools, according to Ruelan.
For this year, three schools will each have a new classroom building: Mt. Ararat Elementary School in Bayugan City, Agusan del Sur; Binabag Elementary School in Binabag, Bogo City; and Sagandoy Integrated School in Benguet. Classrooms in 30 other public schools will also be refurbished and repaired.
Meanwhile, Project Peraparasyon is City Savings Bank’s signature financial education and awareness program. The workshop teaches simple steps on saving, investing and managing debt as well proper finance utilization to guide teacher participants in becoming financially stable.
Ruelan said that through Peraparasyon, teachers learn to become responsible borrowers, to live within their means and to put up their own business. She added, “We teach them how to determine if you will invest in a scam or not.”
According to Ruelan, teachers opening a bank account, which indicate they have saved money, is proof that the financial wellness program is effective.
“It is a big help for us to start building our savings by prioritizing our needs before our wants,” said Rose Abao, a teacher from Alegria National High School in Surigao del Norte. “Our expenses should also not exceed our income so we are not buried in debt.”
Another teacher, Rancy Balitar of Hoyo Elementary School in Silang, Cavite, recalled an important learning from Peraparasyon.
“My key takeaway was learning that expenditures, like a loan, can be turned into assets once used in investments like education or setting up a business.”
“With discipline, awareness, and the right mindset, achieving financial stability in old age is possible and empowering,” added Elizabeth Sanchez, a teacher of Talon 3 Elementary School in Las Piñas City and participant to a Peraparasyon seminar.